Reflections

Coming into this fellowship I was very excited and hopeful of expanding any knowledge I may have had or thought I had. I had been using my laptop in my classrooms and I thought that was fairly advanced, however not being part of the iPad or any pad type of technology I knew that I was still way behind.

As we met each week and learned some form of application, I would try the applications within the week in any class that I felt it could be applied. My goal was to see where – what application could fit.

My experience was amazing and this opened an entire world for me that I had been oblivious to.  I learned an abundance of information at times I felt it could be overwhelming in the sense that you want to use everything however that may not possible. The goal is to “right” fit the applications to the class.

I fortunately teach different ages and subjects so this provided me a platform to try different applications on different levels.  Even in a setting where Wi-Fi / Internet connection is not available. As I planned and executed lesson plans utilizing my iPad I would survey the kids to see what their take was and they had some really positive feedback for me and they definitely liked what I had brought into the lessons.

I found the fellowship very educational and I believe it will enhance my teaching methods and my curriculum. I notice that technology is still not as popular within the Jewish Educational system but it seems to be growing and I feel that the teachers participating in this fellowship are being awarded a great opportunity to be in the forefront of bringing technology into the classrooms.

This is a great tool to interweave within each curriculum and I sat and evaluated each grade, age and ability to use iPad in the class. This has created awesome opportunities not only for classwork but it has provided an opportunity for me to set up webpages the kids work on at home and they come to class prepared and more confident with themselves because they have a connection to me – their teacher at home and they practice with me using web pages set up for homework.

In summary I feel that I came in expecting to learn the basic concept of iPad usage and I feel I am walking away extremely confident in my capabilities with an iPad, I feel I can provide amazing lessons plans that are educational and engaging to my students and I feel a drive to continue on and learn more and expand on what we have done thus far to create stimulating an engaging lesson plans that take Jewish Education to that next level.